NEVER has there been a moment in modern American history when Russia has driven US foreign policy in Europe as it does now. The wider public is now starting to see what many of us have seen all along: that Trump is a conduit for malign global actors seeking to upend the world order. The belief that Trump is some kind of political chessmaster is a joke. He’s the conman and chancer he’s always been, using other people’s money to enrich himself while attempting to build a false persona of success.
There’s a big difference between intellect and street-smart, and while politics requires some element of the latter, the giants of global leadership are in a different league. The obscenely wealthy seized on Trump’s ability to deceive and drive a narrative that he’s a man of the people when even a superficial examination of who he is clearly shows he’s the antithesis of what he claims to be. The hustler in him seized the opportunity to normalise unbridled deceit because of a lack of trust in government. Trump was just the catalyst for a new type of politics born from decades of government failure to serve the people best. A failure that can all be traced back to the corporate purchase of government.
People were so desperate for a better tomorrow that they believed every false narrative he fed them, and the icing on the cake came from creating a permissive environment to abuse ‘the other’. He gave the racists, homophobes and misogynists permission to come out and play. He knew that if he could mix fervent nationalism with religion, he had the perfect cocktail to build a new populist America in which a cult would protect him from the checks and balances that would usually stamp out such ambition.
It’s rare indeed to see millions of Americans worship a leader who gives their money to the rich as they cheer themselves into economic slavery, with no access to affordable healthcare, child care or a wage that will feed their family. He has presided over a social experiment that proves, in a society where 21% of the population is illiterate and 54% have a literacy level at or below 6th grade, you can convince an electorate to vote against their own interests. There’s no question that it’s worked, and the top 1% have been happy to invest to perpetuate his greed-fueled self-serving narrative.
The risk with Trump has always been his unpredictability. But Vought and those in the shadows have been prepared to pander to his ego and obsession with power to advance their own agenda. It took me a little time to understand the vulnerability of their strategy. I long saw JD Vance as the real threat, but having seen him operate, I think that fear is misplaced. Trump’s base is HIS base, not the Republican base. The old guard Republicans were thrown under the bus to make way for Trump, and were subsequently declared the enemy.
What we are beginning to witness is the slow unravelling of Trump’s grip on power, which is where my sense of newfound optimism comes from. The Epstein files were the first real sign that cracks were appearing, as the Speaker and the Attorney General scrambled to protect him, a move that exposed evident panic. Indeed, Bondi’s press conference saw her uncharacteristically uncomfortable as she struggled to answer questions about what might remain redacted. The problem all along has been that the evidence is now so tainted, it’s difficult to see any transparency being delivered.
Regardless, there is an awakening from Republican lawmakers who can see the writing on the wall of the danger of having their political wagon hitched to Trump. Marjorie Taylor Greene is a prime example who sees an opportunity in this moment, maybe for a presidential bid? It’s realisation punctuated by the off-season election results and the recent tsunami of school board election losses across the country. People are growing tired of religious zealotry permeating school boards.
This brings us nicely to the alleged US 28-point capitulation plan presented to Ukraine for a decision by Thanksgiving. If you would like to read the full text of the plan, it is available in an excellent Sky News article that includes both the full text and a summary of the key components. If you'd like a more detailed breakdown, you can take a look at Isobel Koshiwi's piece for AP.
The plan amounts to the geopolitical gang rape by Russia and the US of an ally whose soldiers gave their lives alongside US troops in Operation Iraqi Freedom. If you haven’t read part one of my post on the plan, I have linked it below:
Donald Chamberlain stabs Ukraine in the back
I have long said that Trump is running a transnational extortion gang from the Oval Office. There is no better example of it than the insulting 28-point ‘peace capitulation plan’ he’s attempting to impose on Ukraine on behalf of the Kremlin and a now-indicted war criminal. These are not the actions of a Commander in Chief; they are the actions of a spin…
As noted by Anne Applebaum in a piece for the Atlantic on November 22nd:
The plan was negotiated by Steve Witkoff, a real-estate developer with no historical, geographical, or cultural knowledge of Russia or Ukraine, and Kirill Dmitriev, who heads Russia’s sovereign-wealth fund and spends most of his time making business deals.
In a disaster, the administration was unable to get its story straight on the same day as the above piece was published. Lawmakers said they had spoken to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who told them the deal being pushed by Trump to Zelenskyy was a “wish list” from the Russians, not the actual proposal outlining Washington’s positions. He had been stitched up by the Russians, who had leaked it. Rubio’s words were later denied by a State Department spokesperson who described claims made by Senators as “blatantly false.” To make matters worse, Rubio then went on record himself to say the senators were mistaken, even though he knew they had quoted him as their source. It was like something out of a Charlie Chaplin movie.
The level of diplomatic incompetence is breathtaking and has served once again to undermine US credibility on the world stage. Putin is trying to drive a wedge between the US and Europe, and he knows Trump is an easy mark to achieve his objective, as was so ably demonstrated with this fiasco. Trump is like his personal geopolitical Stradivarius, which he picks up to play at will, diminishing US credibility with every tune. Steve Witcoff’s diplomatic incompetence time and again makes Trump look like an idiot, but the comedy epic continues to play on as world leaders scramble to make sense of yet another unpredictable, stupid move by Trump.
Europe is no hero in this shit show, where Zelenskyy is let down time and time again, as he’s provided with just enough support to hang on. Take a moment to study his face; this is a man who has the death of every innocent Ukrainian etched on his face. In 4 years, he has aged a decade, and still he fights every day to keep Ukraine in a battle they have fought against the odds since Russia illegally invaded the country he loves.
This is NOT all on America by any means. In a piece in The Gaze by Kateryna Ostapenko on November 20th, she reported:
During the war in Ukraine, the European Union spent more on imports from Russia than it provided to Kyiv in financial and military support.
She goes on to note:
Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said that since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the European Union has paid Russia €124 billion more for imports of goods and energy resources than it has provided in support to Ukraine.
According to her, EU countries have supported Ukraine with €187 billion, while €201 billion has been paid for Russian oil and gas alone. Together with other goods, imports from Russia reached €311 billion, resulting in a negative balance of support for Ukraine of €124 billion.
In geopolitics, words rarely match actions, and never has it been more so than with the hypocrisy of European leaders who claim to remove dependence on Russian imports, as they continue to spend billions of dollars on them. It’s frankly a sick joke that is costing innocent lives in Ukraine. Yet, Zelenskyy is gagged as he dares not challenge European or US hypocrisy, for fear his so-called friends will deliver his people into the arms of the aggressor, who will erase their culture, outlaw their language and strip them of their history.
Just as Russian energy imports to Europe help fund murder in Ukraine, so do the imports of Palladium, uranium, and plutonium from Russia into the US. It is this and the rare-earth minerals in Russian-occupied Ukraine that are driving Trump’s insistence on Ukrainian capitulation, as outlined in the Kremlin-authored ‘peace plan’.
Trump and Putin have clearly arrived at a back-room deal to carve up Ukraine’s mineral and energy wealth while rendering Ukraine impotent, unable to join either NATO or the EU. It’s all part of Putin’s plans to reconstitute the Soviet Union.
Europe and the coalition of the willing are currently the largest funder of the defence of Ukraine, yet they still feel unable to point out to Trump that he is proposing to put them in direct peril once his hustle is complete. It’s time for someone to have the balls to say ‘ENOUGH’. It’s time to seize all frozen Russian assets and put them to work to expel Russia from Ukraine. Trump is no longer an ally; he’s an international extortionist and arms dealer. So pay him with Russian money to buy everything Ukraine needs to end this illegal war, while Europe divests itself of Russian imports to prevent any further reliance on Russia. I’m sure Trump will be happy to sell LNG to fill the holes created. Let’s face it, the US economy is in desperate need of cash right now.
Russia is on the verge of economic collapse to the point where it is selling off its gold reserves. Yet for some reason, Trump is attempting to throw Russia a lifeline when he should have his foot on its neck. Putin is desperate for an end to this war because if it continues, not only will the Russian economy collapse, but he will likely disappear, too.
Tomorrow we’ll discuss the potential synchronised collapse of both Trump and Putin, because take it from me, the outlook for them both is not looking good. The clock is ticking.
Everything Trump does is for Putin. Trump hates America and he hates Americans even more. Wake up people.
Wait until Putin asks for Alaska back and Trump just gives it to him 😢